The reward for winning the odds king beating Korea’s leading ace Kim Gwang-hyeon (SSG) was sweet.
Eom Sang-baek signed a 200 million won contract in the KT Wiz annual salary contract for the 2023 season, which ended on the 29th. It was a whopping 150% increase from 80 million won last season. This is the highest increase rate in the KT team, and with this contract, Kim Min-hyuk, Kim Jun-tae, and Oh Yoon-seok were named on the list of new billionaires.
Eom Sang-baek left Deoksu High School and joined the pros with the first nomination by KT in the 2015 rookie draft. The anticipation towards him in the early days of his joining quickly turned into love and hatred. Even though he had good talent and command, he was always in trouble and couldn’t find a place. In the early days of entering the first team of KT, the youngest club, Eom Ju-gon (Eom Sang-baek-Joo-gwon-Jeong Seong-gon) trio’s Eom Sang-baek was Eom Sang-baek.
Eom Sang-baek made military enlistment a turning point in his career. After the 2019 season, he enlisted in the Armed Forces Athletic Unit (Sangmu) 메이저놀이터 and bombarded the Futures League for two years. In the first year, after winning 2 crowns (multiple wins, ERA) with 10 wins, 4 losses and an average ERA of 1.68 in the Southern League, in 2021, 11 matches, 6 wins, undefeated and 1 hold, average ERA of 1.46 continued the momentum. His batting average was only .218, and he earned the nickname ‘Untouchable’ thanks to his overwhelming pitches, which allowed him to strike out 75 while striking out 9 on balls.
Eom Sang-baek, who returned from the military in 2021, grew into a key pitcher indispensable for KT in the first full-time season last year after learning the atmosphere of the first team with an average ERA of 4.10 with 4 wins and 1 loss in 10 games. After successfully filling the void left by ace William Cuevas, who was injured at the beginning of the season, he settled down as a starter and was reborn as a 10-win pitcher, building a powerful trio with Koh Young-pyo and Sohn So-jun.
Eom Sang-baek played as an all-weather pitcher at the beginning of the season and went back and forth between the starter and bullpen, overcoming exclusion and settling down as a starter, posting a career-high 2.95 ERA in 33 games with 11 wins and 2 losses. On September 25, he won his first 10 wins against NC and his first 10 wins against KIA on October 8, recording an odds ratio of .846, beating KBO league representative ace Kim Kwang-hyun (.813 SSG) and winning the odds king. squeezed
Eom Sang-baek, who was reborn as a player with an annual salary of 200 million won at once, has a different resolution for the 2023 season. In an interview on the 29th, he said, “My goal is to run full-time this year without getting sick. He said, “If you don’t get sick, everything will follow.” “In 2022, I received undeserved love. I believe that we will be able to win unconditionally this year. I will go to the top once again and win.”